Offices Held

Biography

Henshaw’s father migrated from Cheshire to Sussex. Little is known about Henshaw himself. According to some Sussex sources, he became solicitor-general in Ireland, but no confirmation of this has been found. Why this London lawyer should have twice found a parliamentary seat at Whitchurch, where the patronage was in the hands of the ecclesiastical authorities, has not been ascertained. On 8 Nov. 1597, he moved ‘against recusants, and building of cottages adjoining cities’, in which, as a Holborn householder, he had a special interest. During his second Parliament he was appointed to a committee on the Sabbath day (6 Nov. 1601). The following day, during the reading of the bill concerning watchmen, he proposed ‘that the immediate landlords of every such night walker should be bound for the good behaviour of him to the Queen’s use’, but the House would have none of it. He also spoke on 2 Dec. concerning the double payment of debts on shop books.4